Chassis CSX 3015 began life as a 427 competition roadster, one of 23 such models built. Originally used for a European promotional tour, the car made its way stateside in late 1966 and was converted to SC (Semi-Competition) trim to make it street-legal. Enter Carroll Shelby, who was tired of seeing the taillamps of his friend Stan Mullin’s Ferrari on their regular trips to Lake Tahoe. Wanting a 427 Cobra with a bit more top end, Shelby had his team install a pair of Paxton superchargers and mate the engine to a reinforced Lincoln Cruise-O-Matic transmission. The “Super Snake,” of which only two were ever constructed, was born.

Shelby’s upgrades produced the desired effect, and the World Registry of Cobras and GT40s, 4th Edition, quotes Mullin as saying, “…the darn thing exploded past 140 MPH, and actually accelerated faster at that speed than from a standstill. It ate my Ferrari alive.” A second Super Snake car, CSX 3303, was built for comedian Bill Cosby, who once quipped to friend Carroll Shelby that he’d buy a Cobra if it could do 200 MPH. Ever the showman, Shelby reportedly affixed a plaque to 3303′s dashboard, guaranteeing the car would do 200 MPH. It did, to the horror of Cosby, who documented the experience in his comedy album 200 MPH.

Shelby put his Super Snake on the market in late 1968, at an asking price of $10,000. It remained for sale until 1970, when it was purchased by songwriter James Webb. By then, CSX 3015 was the sole remaining Super Snake; CSX 3303 had been crashed heavily by owner Tony Maxey, who later succumbed to injuries received in the accident.

Webb held on to the car until 1995, reportedly turning down offers as high as $1.2 million. The decision to part with the car was made for him: He owed an estimated $3 million in back taxes, and CSX 3015 was seized by the IRS and later sold to a collector at auction for the price of $375,000. It would pass through several more owners, a repaint and a full restoration before being acquired by Pratte at auction in January of 2007.

Ron Pratte donated proceeds from the sale of his Futurliner to the Armed Forces Foundation.

Another eagerly anticipated lot was the 1950 GM Futurliner that Pratte purchased at auction in 2006 for $4.1 million. Ahead of the lot’s sale on Saturday night, Barrett-Jackson announced that all proceeds from the sale would go to the Armed Forces Foundation, and bidding quickly jumped into the millions of dollars. While the bus sold for a hammer price of $4 million, it’s worth reporting that the lot received a further $650,000 in donations from bidders.

One of two built, the Pontiac Bonneville Special Motorama concept sold for $3.3 million.

Cars and music have been indelibly linked for a century, and a new exhibit coming to the Northeast Classic Car Museum in Norwich, New York, illustrates this bond. The year-long exhibit, Car Tunes – A Celebration of Cars in Song, will feature everything from a 1932 Ford “Little Deuce Coupe,” the star of a Beach Boys hit, through a 1970 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, the subject of a 1994 Neil Young song.

Museum marketing coordinator Marty Kuhn said a few of the cars planned for the exhibit will include a “Fun, Fun, Fun” 1957 Ford Thunderbird E-Code; a 1955 Oldsmobile “Rocket 88,” made famous by Jackie Breston and his Delta Cats (who were really Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm); a green-and-yellow 1965 Checker Marathon taxi, which once served passengers along New York’s Park Avenue, honored in song by Cher (“Taxi, Taxi”), Harry Chapin (“Taxi”) and Joni Mitchell (“Big Yellow Taxi”); a 1968 Pontiac GTO, as praised by Ronny & the Daytonas; a 1961 Chevrolet “Little Red Corvette,” described by Prince as “much too fast;” a 1958 1959 Chevrolet El Camino, crooned about by Adriana Evans (and Ween); and a 1966 Shelby Cobra 427, as immortalized by the Rip Chords in “Hey Little Cobra.” Reportedly, the exhibit will even include a 1953 “Little Nash Rambler” and a 1956 Cadillac, stars of the comical highway showdown immortalized by The Playmates in the song “Beep Beep.”

In addition to the annually updated feature exhibit, the museum’s regular galleries include The Pre-War Collection; American Beauties; The Fabulous Franklins; The Legends: Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg, Packard; Cars Made in New York State; Found in Barns Around the State; The Post-War Era; Vintage Airplane Engines; and Vintage Fashions, which are displayed throughout the exhibits to add atmosphere to the automobiles shown.

The Northeast Classic Car Museum was opened in May of 1997, and originally featured a display of 50 cars in a single building, most on loan from the collection of Franklin aficionado George Staley. Today, the collection (which includes cars gifted to the museum following Staley’s death in April 2011, plus cars on loan from museum benefactors) has grown to include five linked buildings and more than 160 vehicles on display. Cars belonging to the museum are routinely exhibited at events throughout the Northeast, such as the recent Rhinebeck swap meet, at which the museum displayed a 1912 Metz.

Car Tunes – A Celebration of Cars in Song will open on Saturday, May 17, and run through April 2015. For additional information, visit ClassicCarMuseum.org.

When the Petersen Museum holds a Shelby-themed cruise-in, there’s no telling what will turn up in the parking lot of the Los Angeles institution. While there was no shortage of rare and desirable Shelby models at last weekend’s event, it was an unrestored 1965 Shelby Cobra 427 S/C, owned by Anthony Boosalis, that caught our eye.

Boosalis has owned the mostly original car for the past two and a half years, and the weathered gold Cobra is a radical departure from the carefully preserved and immaculately detailed norm. As the World Registry of Cobras and GT40s, Fourth Edition explains, CSX3047 was billed to Shelby American in February of 1965 and finished as one of about 30 S/C (for Semi-Competition) models. The initial order for the car came from Larsen Ford of White Plains, New York, in May of 1966 (and it was Larsen that requested the car in Hertz Gold, for promotional advertising purposes), and in August of that year, the dealership was invoiced $7,395 upon delivery.

In September 1966, the car was sold to its first owner in Hudson, New York. A month later, the car was returned to the dealership for some rather extensive warranty work, including the replacement of a broken pushrod, a damaged lifter and the rebuilding of the heads; in other words, the car’s first owner drove the car as Carroll Shelby intended (and, likely, somewhat beyond).

The car’s third owner lived in Ontario, Canada, and when he offered the Cobra for sale in December 1970, it was described as one of just 25 “street/competition” models, with a blueprinted Le Mans engine (under warranty) and no history of competition use or damage. It quickly passed through the hands of another owner (Carter Gette) before being acquired by Dick Reventlow (Lance Reventlow’s half-brother), who owned the car for five months before selling it back to Gette for the same price.

Under Gette’s second ownership, the car was painted Guardsman Blue over the original Hertz Gold. Perhaps because of his proximity to Lime Rock Park, Gette also offered the car for rental to approved clients. In addition to the $200 per weekend fee (a sizable amount in 1973), Gette also required a $10,000 deposit, in order to cover any potential damage to the car during spirited driving. One person with the means to rent the car at Lime Rock was P.L. Newman, better known as the actor Paul Newman.

From the 1970s through the 1990s, the Cobra passed through many hands, though it was a regular sight at Shelby American Automobile Club events on the East Coast, where it routinely picked up top three (and occasionally best in class) honors. By 2001, however, the car was beginning to show its age, with flecks of gold paint showing in chips of its once pristine blue paint. Another clue to the car’s original hue was found on the back of the tachometer: next to the S/C designator was a note reading “gold.”

In 2005, a restoration to the car’s as-delivered state was considered, but never executed. Instead, then owner Don Silawsky opted to have the car cleaned, freshened and “de-painted,” revealing most of the original Hertz Gold livery underneath the blue. Perhaps the best news was the condition of the body, which remained damage-free across five decades of ownership. The Cobra retains its original soft top, tonneau cover, side curtains, seat belts, period-correct (if not original) magnesium knock-off wheels, and, according to serial number data, engine.

Boosalis, the car’s current owner, is no stranger to 427 Cobras. He’s owned competition Cobra chassis CSX3016, a car that saw action at tracks like Nassau, Sebring, Bridgehampton and Watkins Glen, where in 1966 it set a lap record for a production car. Boosalis still owns competition Cobra CSX3026, which saw action at Brands Hatch before being returned to the United States; though this car was once modified for historic racing, Boosalis has returned the car to an as-delivered state. As for his latest Cobra, CSX3047, Boosalis has no plans to restore or modify the car in any way. As he explains it, the golden Cobra may be the most original 427 S/C remaining, so any restoration or modification will take away from the car instead of adding to it.

Popular opinion is with him as well. Perhaps because of the car’s imperfections, it’s won awards in its current state at SAAC gatherings, and just last weekend collected a People’s Choice award at the Petersen cruise-in. Sometimes the beauty of a car goes far beyond gleaming paint and polished wheels.

Illustrating the depth of the top-end sales at the recent RM Auctions event at the glamorous Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix, Corvette #005, which we previewed here last month, sold for $445,500, an impressive number, but one that didn’t even gain it admittance into that sale’s top 10 list.

Featuring fewer cars than last year’s sale – entries were capped at 140 cars rather than the 180 of 2011 – RM’s final sales figures remained suitably impressive, with 126 of those 140 finding new homes, and the total selling price for all vehicles topping $25 million.

Photo courtesy RM Auctions

It was prancing Modenese horses that proved gold at RM: Their biggest number was achieved by the 1957 Ferrari 410 Superamerica Scaglietti Coupe, which brought $1,815,000, coming in right at the lower end of RM’s pre-auction estimate of $1.75 million to $2.25 million. Other bell ringers included a 1973 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Spyder that sold for $990,000, a 1957 BMW 507 that sold for $990,000, a 1963 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso Berlinetta that sold for $979,000, a 1930 Duesenberg Model J Long Wheelbase Dual Cowl Phaeton that sold for $880,000, and a 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 that sold for $880,000. These prices include the 10 percent buyer’s premium.

“Our Arizona sale proved to be a great kick-start to what is shaping up as another terrific auction year,” said Rob Meyers, Chairman and Founder of RM Auctions. “We are very pleased with the results of the sale and were delighted to welcome the world’s premier collectors back to the Arizona Biltmore.”

With the holiday season upon us, it’s a sure sign that a new event season is fast approaching; its symbolic kick-off being the series of auctions in and around Scottsdale, Arizona, in mid-January. Among them is the sale conducted by RM Auctions January 19-20, on the elegant grounds of the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa.

This year, RM boasts a catalog of nearly 150 automobiles, including a a series of rare Ferraris led by the 1957 410 Superamerica (s/n 0671) pictured above. According to RM’s description:

Ferrari’s coveted Superamerica was regarded as one of the most elite Enzo-era road cars, reserved for its most discerning clientele and offering the ultimate combination of high-performance and bespoke design. The example on offer, one of just six Series II cars, was built specifically for longtime Ferrari patron, Dottore Enrico Wax, the principal in the Genoa firm Wax & Vitale, best known as importers of Johnny Walker Scotch and Connolly leather. Stunning in its design – 0671 SA features a brushed stainless steel roof and fins, polished and vented rocker panels and side grille, and open headlamps – it holds a special place in history as the first new Ferrari road car to be bodied by Scaglietti and the only 410 Superamerica ever bodied by the firm.

Complementing the 410 is a fleet of other notable Ferraris, including a 1952 342 America Pinin Farina Coupe (s/n 0246 AL; one of six built and displayed at the 1953 Geneva Motor Show); a 1973 365 GTB/4 Daytona Spyder (s/n 16705); a matching-numbers 1958 250 GT Ellena Berlinetta (s/n 0861); and a 1991 F40 ordered by Lee Iacocca.

If Ferraris are not your cup of tea, how about a 1957 BMW 507 Roadster, a 1930 Duesenberg Model J LWB Dual Cowl Phaeton, a 1966 Shelby Cobra 427, a 1931 Chrysler CG Imperial convertible, a 1914 Rolls-Royce 40/50 Silver Ghost Landaulet by Barker, or a 1953 Chevy Corvette; all found within RM’s Scottsdale sale catalog.